Kingston Thrown Out of League Tables
From:
By: Ashley Brown
The psychology department at Kingston University is to be thrown out of this year's university satisfaction league tables, after Live! exposed their cheating.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England has removed Kingston University's psychology department from this year's student satisfaction survey, after Live! publicised a recording of the department coercing its students to lie. On the recording, Fiona Barlow-Brown could be heard encouraging students to give higher rankings when filling in the final-year National Student Survey in an effort to boost the university's rankings. Otherwise, she said, employers would think their degree was 'shit'.
A statement by Kingston, reported by the BBC said that it accepted the decision and "has been aware that this was the most likely outcome since this isolated incident first came to light".
Live! picked up the story from a Kingston protest site, before notifying a number of national news organisations, of which only the BBC reacted at first. Following the BBCs coverage the issue of cheating on the National Student Survey made national news, also getting mentioned in the Houses of Parliament. At the time, the BBC was flooded by emails from students at other universities, highlighting that similar coercion was occuring at their institutions.
Kingston University Statement
“Kingston University has taken this situation very seriously and co-operated fully with HEFCE as it has looked into the matter. The University plans to introduce an agreed script in the run-up to the next National Student Survey which will be widely circulated to students and staff to avoid any repeat of this incident.”
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